Online social networks, such as LinkedIn, IBM Connections, Twitter, and Facebook, enable users to establish an online presence and identity to more easily connect with users. Often the users use sharing of personal information (profile photo, photos, thoughts, etc.) in order to create conversation, generate awareness, share information, and get business done.
Particularly in enterprise social networks, identity/personal information is first seen by viewing users through the profile photo. From these profile photos, a viewer can get important information that goes beyond mere identification. The person may have a sense of humor, a unique perspective, or an extra dose of character imbued by parenthood or hobbies.
In spite of promoting understanding of perspective, humor, and character, there is little utility in the profile photo due to the difficulty in translating a photograph into real-life identification, such as meeting at a conference. The problem originates with recognizing contradictory requirements for profile photos in an enterprise social computing platform. Good headshot photos help geographically dispersed teams form closer bonds by seeing their team members as more than just a text string identifying their names. Good headshot photos are particularly helpful when the team has to come together for face to face meetings or find one another in a crowded train station to meet up before proceeding to a customer meeting.
The contradiction arises between these utility needs of the enterprise versus the users' need to be expressive with their profile photos. There is a method needed for ensuring that a photo provided by a user actually meets the criteria for which it is intended.